​New 'safety first' bail laws begin today

The safety of the community, victims and witnesses will be at the
forefront of all decisions made on bail in NSW, as the new Bail Act comes into
force today, Attorney General Brad Hazzard and Police and Emergency Services
Minister Stuart Ayres have said.

Mr Hazzard said police and the
judiciary would apply a simple risk assessment when deciding whether to grant an
accused person bail.

“The new Bail Act is about protecting the community and reducing the
risk that an accused commits an offence, interferes with a witness or fails to
attend court,” Mr Hazzard said.

“If the accused poses an
unacceptable risk that can’t be sufficiently mitigated by bail conditions, he or
she will be refused bail and taken into custody.”

The Commander of Police
Prosecutions, Chief Superintendent Tony Trichter said more than 16,000 police –
and hundreds of lawyers, magistrates and judges - had received training about
the new Bail Act.

“We welcome the new risk management approach which puts community
safety first.”

Police and Emergency Services Minister Mr Ayres said the vast
majority of bail decisions were made by police and the straight-forward new laws
would enable officers to make decisions quickly and with
confidence.

“The new Bail Act is good news for policing and if you get it right
for police, you get it right for the community,” Mr Ayres said.

“The simplicity of the laws
will mean officers will spend less time wading through legal jargon and more
time working on the front line.”

Mr Hazzard said the old Bail Act
had been amended 57 times in 16 years under the previous Labor Government,
making it difficult to use, even for people with legal training.

“The old
Bail Act contained a complex and inconsistent set of presumptions about whether
bail should be granted based on the charges the accused was facing, and resulted
in some decisions which did not make sense.”

“Improving the Bail Act was a
Coalition election commitment and the new, simpler bail test will lead to fairer
and more consistent outcomes, while safeguarding the rights of the accused,” Mr
Hazzard said.

BAIL FACT SHEETBail:Bail has a number of purposes. The new
law has been designed to protect the community, to ensure accused people turn up
to court, and to prevent inappropriate contact with witnesses and victims. Bail
is not about punishment. Bail applies only to people who have not yet had their
case decided by the court; they are presumed innocent until proven
guilty.

When a person is charged, police decide if a person should be
released without bail, given conditional bail or kept in custody, a decision
which is then reviewed by a court.

Last year nearly 105,000 adults
were charged with offences in the Local Court. In more than two thirds of cases,
the accused person was released without bail until their trial. About 24 per
cent of people were released on bail, often with some conditions, while about 6
per cent were kept in custody, bail refused.

The old Bail Act:
The old Bail Act had become too complex
after being amended 85 times in 36 years.

Under the old law, decisions about
bail first looked at the offence a person was charged with. Some charges carried
a presumption in favour of bail, others carried a presumption against bail, and
some charges carried no presumptions either way. There were also offences for
which exceptional circumstances had to be shown for bail to be
granted.

These ‘presumptions’ were not always consistent with the seriousness
of the offence. For example, serious offences such as sexual assault had a
presumption in favour of bail.

Looking primarily at the
presumption that applied to the offence a person was charged with, when deciding
if they should be allowed to remain in the community while awaiting their trial
didn’t always adequately assess the risk they pose to the community.

The new
Bail Act: The new legislation is simple
and clear. The new Act is risk-based. The risk the accused person poses to
victims or the community, and the likelihood of them not turning up to court, is
the prime consideration in deciding the bail outcome.

When a person is arrested and
charged, police make the initial bail decision. If police refuse bail, the
accused person can then go to court where a magistrate or judge decides if they
should be granted bail.

When considering bail, the police and courts will need to
decide if an accused person poses an unacceptable risk of:endangering the safety of the community;committing a serious offence;- interfering with witnesses; or failing to attend court when required.

If they do present an unacceptable
risk, and the risk cannot be mitigated by imposing conditions on the accused,
bail will be refused.